William Danforth, Longtime Research Philanthropist, Dies at 94

Danforth founded the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and expanded scientific research at Washington University and beyond campus in St. Louis.

Written byMax Kozlov

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COURTESY OF THE DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER

William Henry Danforth, a cardiologist who founded the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and transformed Washington University in St. Louis into one of the nation’s leading universities, died September 16. He was 94.

“Bill will be revered in St. Louis as one of the most important civic figures in the history of the city,” says Danforth Plant Science Center President Jim Carrington, who was a close friend of Danforth. “People would talk about him as if he was someone with superpowers, but I think of him as the most human of human beings because he could look to see what people needed and he wasn’t afraid to work and make things better.”

Danforth was born in St. Louis on April 10, 1926, the son of Donald, a business executive for whom he named the Plant Science Center, and Dorothy Danforth, and the ...

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Meet the Author

Max Kozlov
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Max is a science journalist from Boston. Though he studied cognitive neuroscience, he now prefers to write about brains rather than research them. Prior to writing for The Scientist as an editorial intern in late 2020 and early 2021, Max worked at the Museum of Science in Boston, where his favorite part of the job was dressing in a giant bee costume and teaching children about honeybees. He was also a AAAS Mass Media Fellow, where he worked as a science reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Read more of his work at www.maxkozlov.com.
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